THE SPRITE 6

TitleTHE SPRITE 6
BrandCOCA-COLA CHINA
Product / ServiceSPRITE
CategoryA02. Best Non-Fiction Program, Series or Film where a client has successfully created a reality, documentary or light entertainment show around a product(s) or brand(s)
EntrantBBH CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Entrant Company BBH CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Contributing Company BBH CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Production Company PRO FILM Shanghai, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Jane Chen Bbh China Account Manager
Tian Li Bbh China Planner
Simonas Piepalius Bbh China Planner
Ryan Law Bbh China Account Director
Nigel Tribe Bbh China Planning Director
Finnian O’neill Bbh China Business Director
Bernice Wong Bbh China Producer
Wang Zi Zhao Pro Films Director
Ken Lu Bbh China Associate Creative Director
Yu Kung Bbh China Creative Director
Johnny Tan Bbh China Executive Creative Director

The Campaign

In China, TV is still the backbone for reaching the mass audiences. However there is a huge increase in online viewing content, especially among young adults, given the rapid growth of broadband and mobile internet across all tiers. Given this, digital is now close to TV in penetration among youth and can offer brands both broad impact as well as deep engagement and targeting. Branded entertainment has been growing in usage by brands, especially for youth audiences. There are some advantages to this. Firstly China is very rigid in its TV regulations especially when it comes to sensitive topics like politics, sex and bad language. Online branded entertainment offers brands the ability to appropriately cover topics that would be precluded on TV. Secondly, for youth audiences, digital offers a space in which they can more freely express themselves, away from the pressures and constraints that their families and society places on them. For brands looking to more deeply connect with youth audiences, online branded content allows richer and more authentic stories to be told, allowing youth to more directly get involved.

Results

Basketball is one of the most popular sports in China and as a result the market is saturated with brands trying to associate themselves with this sport. We needed to find a unique space for Sprite in basketball, one that would bring to life its ambition to be a champion of people’s true selves. Talking with ballers across China, we found that the champions of Chinese basketball aren’t only the stars, they’re the people that champion the game day in and day out - the Everyday Baller. The Everyday Baller had also been overlooked by brands who all had favored shining a light on national and international basketball players and the ever ubiquitous usage of celebrities. For the Everyday Baller, basketball is a release from the pressures of everyday life, a space where they can instinctively be their true selves. Furthermore, across China there are a range of archetypes that reflect people’s natural on-court personas. Using six of these - The Warrior, The Boyfriend, The Trickster, The Organizer, The Fashionista and The Civilian - we created the Sprite 6.The Sprite 6 are six everyday ballers who would journey across China to explore the Chinese basketball culture every other brand had largely ignored. A content-led approach would allow Sprite to authentically showcase the characters and stories of this culture. Digital, as well as being heavily consumed by youth, would also allow us to cover topics TV would preclude us from covering. We launched the campaign with a teaser film of the Sprite 6 that hero-ed the Everyday Baller. Then we filmed and distributed a five part episodic program online about the Sprite 6’s journey across China. Paid, Owned & Earned media were orchestrated to get people to watch and discuss the content and get involved by showcasing their own on-court archetype.

The campaign follows the story of 6 Everyday Ballers as they travel across 5 different locations in China to explore the culture of the game. Launched with a teaser to introduce these six common archetypes, we followed this with a five part online content series. With content at the heart of the campaign, we wrapped this in a comprehensive Paid, Owned and Earned plan that would drive viewership of the content and get people involved and talking about it.

While sales and brand tracking data aren’t available at this time, over April to May 2013 when the campaign ran, the content gained 174,189,503 views exceeding the KPI’s set by 107%. Site visits and video views to Sprite’s Owned properties exceeded expectations with 3.6M videos viewed (exceeding the KPI by 223%). Participation in the campaign, from User Generated Content, to comments, shares and likes was over 964,000 exceeding the KPI’s by 182%. Furthermore, the campaign idea attracted considerable offline and online Earned media, generating over 240MM more impressions around the campaign. The idea had broken through the basketball clutter, championing and creating conversation around the real stars of Chinese basketball – the Everyday Baller.